


Playing Favorites

by Gammarad



Category: Provenance - Ann Leckie
Genre: Dreams, First Person POV Frame, Gen, ghost - Freeform, minor character death (past)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27296827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad
Summary: Someone was killed, the body was never found, and it's all long in the past.A ghost remembers, and tells Ingray, who convinces Taucris to help her search Eswae Parkland.
Relationships: Ingray Aughskold/Taucris Ithesta
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	Playing Favorites

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).



I had never liked any of my heirs. 

It wasn't their fault. They were supposed to be me -- but part of being me was not wanting to be someone else, and they were all willing to be me, not themselves. So right there, it was hard to like them. And for all that I'd liked myself fine when I was alive, there were a lot of things I'd made of myself that I didn't like very much.

The potential heirs I'd liked best had been the ones who ended up declining the honor. Like Ingray. 

So when Netano (formerly Danach) got himself into trouble, it was Ingray who I was inclined to go to to sort things out. I came to her in a dream and told her where to find Netano's bones.

The Netano whose body had never been found had been the current Netano's predecessor's predecessor's predecessor. E had mysteriously disappeared on the cusp of retiring. Eir successor to the Netano name had done all he could to find Netano or eir remains, but I had not helped and he had not known where to look or who was responsible. He was an excellent politician but not much of an analytical thinker outside of politics, and had some blind spots the size of Eswae Parkland.

Which happened to be where Netano's body was buried. I showed the location to Ingray in her dream, impressed on her the importance of having Taucris accompany her -- to see to the provenance of the evidence she would find, but I didn't specify.

📃📃📃

"It's important," Ingray said at breakfast, sounding unsure. "Do you know when you might have the time?"

Taucris shook her head. "Planetary Safety's been busy, there have been scheduling problems." Her superior had been leaving more and more of the work to Taucris, or Taucris had been taking more and more of it on herself, and her free hours had grown scarcer. 

"Please," Ingray said, taking Taucris by the hand. "We could do it this afternoon, and you'd be back at work tomorrow morning." She shifted gears. "Your assistant needs the practice taking over for you unexpectedly. This will give em a chance to prove eir worth to you. Or to demonstrate that you need a new assistant."

That pulled a reluctant smile from Taucris. "I suppose I have to say yes, when you put it that way." 

So that afternoon they were in Eswae Parkland, walking together. Taucris took Ingray's hand and laced their fingers together. "Tell me about the dream again?"

As they walked, Ingray did. The dream had shifted from the inchoate urgency it had been when she first woke, to a simple narrative. "I was sitting on a hill here in the Parkland, the one where we're headed. I had a piece of paper in my hand, a vestige of some kind, covered in writing, but I couldn't read it. I knew it was something I wanted to show to Danach, but I couldn't yet, because it was missing a piece. A corner had been ripped off. 

"A woman appeared -- she didn't walk up to me, she simply was there when she hadn't been before. I recognized her: the first Netano. She said there had been an injustice, and that I had to bring you to see something, and she pointed down the hill, to where there was a crevice between two big pieces of ruin glass. And then I woke up." Ingray pointed ahead with her free hand. "There, that's the hill." Her lips pressed together. "Maybe. I think it is."

When they reached that hill, Ingray looked around, but didn't see the crevice. Another hill, maybe ten minutes more walk further into the parkland, might be the right place, but she still wasn't sure. Taucris put her hand on Ingray's shoulder. "Maybe the place doesn't exist except in your dream," she said softly.

Ingray was tired. Her feet hurt. She had been walking longer and further than she usually did, and her body had complaints. But she was stubborn and reliable, and didn't give up easily. "It could be that next hill," she said. "We're so close, let's check it out."

Taucris slowed her walk to let Ingray keep up. "It's nice to be out walking with you and see the ruin glass," she said. "It's all right if we don't find anything."

"We'll find it," Ingray said doggedly, pushing herself to both talk and continue walking at a reasonable pace. 

The next hill had the exact crevice Ingray had dreamed about. She sat down with an exhausted sigh in the same place as she had been in the dream. "This is it." Ingray lay back, taking deep breaths. Her feet ached, and so did her ankles. She might barely be able to walk the next day. But she'd found it. 

Taucris was over by the crevice, peering down. "Ingray," she said warningly. "There's human remains down there."

Ingray pulled herself to her feet, feeling the soreness in her toes. Even the walk back would be horrible. Human remains -- she looked into the crevice. The sun was low on the horizon, but they had a couple of hours before it would get dark. The angle of the sun made the interior of the crevice dim, and Ingray didn't think she saw anything in there. A few odd lighter shapes in the dark was all. "Oh," she said. 

"An injustice," Taucris echoed. She punched a code into her communicator. "I need to get a vehicle out here, get this examined and identified." 

"It was Netano," Ingray said. She swayed, faint for a moment, and Taucris caught her with an arm around her waist. She leaned on Taucris's shoulder. "Have them be careful with the ripped corner, it's an important vestige," she said, resting her head against Taucris.

📃📃📃

Netano -- Ingray still sometimes thought of him as Danach, though she knew she shouldn't -- her brother, then, was upset about something. He wasn't saying what. 

She didn't think it was her having found their ancestor's remains. That Netano had been restored postmortem, given eir rightful place in the family columbarium, should be the opposite of upsetting, and even Mama had not fretted much about her grandnother's mysterious demise, though it had happened in her childhood, just after her adoption into the Aughskold family. 

Ingray told herself it was not her business what was bothering her brother. Nuncle Lak would see to his needs, assisting him was no longer her job, though it had been for many years, and family -- well, Netano could ask her as family if he needed her help. Of course she would help if he asked for it. But unasked help -- he would wonder what she'd ask in return.

Netano didn't like being beholden to his sister.

She would have kept her resolve not to offer anything until he asked, if she hadn't overheard him shouting about the Second Prolocutor finding something out. That was enough to remind Ingray of her visit, the year before, to the Second Prolocutor's office to discuss the reform of Compassionate Removal. 

While she had been there, Ingray had seen one of their most important vestiges, a signed document written in the hand of the first of their family to become Second Prolocutor, the acceptance speech he had composed for the occasion. And it had been missing a corner.

Her mind put that together with her dream. With the remains of her great-grandnother who she and Taucris had found. A small aluminum cylinder had been found with eir remains, and within it a scrap of archival quality paper, a small triangle. 

As it turned out, the two objects fit together perfectly, irrefutable evidence of a crime that had taken place too long ago to be the concern of Planetary Safety. It was still potentially volatile politically, and that could be used to save Danach. Maybe even to pressure the Second Assembly into supporting Ingray's work on behalf of creche children and the reform of Compassionate Removal. 

It certainly would be worth trying.

📃📃📃

Because I liked her, I trusted her to make the necessary choices herself. I was sure she would use it wisely. She cares about her family, and, too, she cares about Hwae, about making it better, and about those who Hwae does not treat as well as it should. 

I knew she would balance things out within her mind and find the best route. She might not trust herself all the time, but I trust her more than any of the rest of my family. I may encourage her to produce a child for consideration as the next heir to my name. Maybe they would even turn out to be someone who would be able to both be their own self, and Netano, at the same time. 

It had never happened before, but always I hold out hope.


End file.
